Wendy Edsall-Kerwin's Journey as an Artist

Another Collar?!

That’s right, people, I’ve been working on yet another collar. I’m a glutton for punishment, what can I say? I just haven’t been motivated to work on any smaller pieces lately.

I sawed two inches straight down the middle of this wire!

I’ve had this piece of 4 gauge (that’s really thick!) sterling wire for many years now (since I took a forging workshop) just sitting around waiting for me to do something with it. I’ve been thinking about some collar ideas and the other day the perfect thought popped out while I was doodling with gemstones.

First, I sawed down the middle of the metal so that I could form two smaller wires. I then forked them out and pounded on them for awhile. I made a simple bezel for a moss agate (from my big sale binge) and then decided to make it not so simple. The one edge is bezel free so you can wonder at the beauty of the clear part of the agate.

I formed the collar, flattened the opposite end and then soldered the bezel onto the forked part. I left a lot of the roughness (and even added some extra) for a great textural effect.

Look at the edge on that agate! (Can't I ever just do it the normal way? NO!)

Now all it needs is to be finished up and oxidized.

The piece reminds me of a dragon (I swear it isn’t due to the Piers Anthony book I’ve been reading!) so I think I might name it Dragon’s Kiss (you know, forked tongue, fiery gemstone…) What do you think?